November 1st, 2006 | RESEARCH
Interest is a powerful motivator; nonetheless, science educators often lack the necessary information to make use of the power of student-specific interests in the reform process of science curricula. This study suggests a novel methodology, which might be helpful in identifying such interests--using children's self-generated questions as an indication of their scientific interests. In this research, children's interests were measured by analyzing 1555 science-related questions submitted to an international Ask-A-Scientist Internet site. The analysis indicated that the popularity of certain topics varies with age and gender. Significant differences were found between children's spontaneous (intrinsically motivated) and school-related (extrinsically motivated) interests. Surprisingly, girls contributed most of the questions to the sample; however, the number of American girls dropped upon entering senior high school. We also found significant differences between girls' and boys' interests, with girls generally preferring biological topics. The two genders kept to their stereotypic fields of interest, in both their school-related and spontaneous questions. Children's science interests, as inferred from questions to Web sites, could ultimately inform classroom science teaching. This methodology extends the context in which children's interests can be investigated.
Document
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Team Members
Ayelet Baram-Tsabari, Author, Weizmann Institute of ScienceRicky Sethi, Author, University of California, Riverside
Lynn Bry, Author, Harvard Medical School
Citation
Identifier Type: ISSN
Identifier: 0036-8326
Publication: Science Education
Volume: 90
Number: 6
Page(s): 1050
Related URLs
Tags
Audience: Educators | Teachers | Elementary School Children (6-10) | Middle School Children (11-13) | Museum | ISE Professionals | Scientists | Youth | Teen (up to 17)
Discipline: Education and learning science | General STEM
Resource Type: Peer-reviewed article | Research Products
Environment Type: Media and Technology | Websites | Mobile Apps | Online Media